1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to communications systems for sporting events and more particularly to a communications system for the game of football allows the quarterback to be heard by his teammates over crowd noise.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
Football is a major spectator sport in the United States. The term football, as used herein, refers to U.S. and Canadian football as distinguished from soccer which the rest of the world refers to as "football". U.S. and Canadian style football is known in Europe as "gridiron". The field layout, equipment and rules of the game are well known by most spectators. Nevertheless, it is necessary to give a brief description of the game as a setting for the invention described and claimed herein.
United States football is played by 11-man teams on a field having a playing area 100 yards long and 160 feet wide, marked along its length by parallel lines at 5-yard intervals and goal lines at each end.
The offensive team has four downs, or plays, in which to advance the bah at least 10 yards and thus make another first down. For each first down made, a team gets another series of four downs in which to gain at least 10 more yards. On fourth down or earlier, depending on the strategy, if a team has failed to gain 10 yards, it may choose to punt the ball to the other team or to attempt a field goal.
Before each play begins, the teams face each other on the line of scrimmage, an imaginary line that runs the width of the field and through the point to which the offensive team has advanced. After the ball is positioned, the center snaps, or passes, it through his legs, usually to the quarterback, who begins the play. The quarterback may run with the ball or hand or pass it to a teammate, who will in turn run with it or pass it. The play ends when the ball carrier is tackled, is forced out of bounds, or scores.
In both United States and Canadian professional football, the quarterback calls the plays. The players usually huddle on completion of one play to get the quarterback's instructions. The quarterback then calls out his instructions during his handling an snap of the ball at the start of a play. The intense competitiveness of professional and college football and the intense loyalty of the fans of the respective teams, has resulted in a practice which often is often unfair and for which there is no redress under the rules. Whenever the opposing (visiting) team has advanced the ball far down the field and is in a position where it is likely to score, the fans of the home team, at that end of the field, deliberately scream and yell until the noise is so great that the opposing team cannot hear the calls of their quarterback. This is an unfair situation inasmuch as the home team fans greatly outnumber the visiting team fans so the noise is deliberately directed at the visiting team as a matter of strategy.
There have been suggestions to overcome the problem of crowd noise but none have been put into use. One suggestion has been to have the players use helmets with built in transmitters which broadcast through the field public address system. This has not been practical since because there would be an appreciable time delay of sound reaching the field. Another suggestion has been to provide transceivers which permit two way communication among the players. This has not been satisfactory because it changes the integrity of the game. Also, there is a safety and excessive weight problem with transceivers in the helmet. Furthermore, the professional football leagues do not permit the use of such equipment.
Several U.S. patents illustrate various types of communications equipment for safety helmets.
Reed U.S. Pat. No. 5,142,700 discloses a helmet, such as a motorcycle helmet, construction worker helmet or football helmet with a built in transceiver system.
Hattori U.S. Pat. No. 5,136,657 discloses a helmet with a built in transceiver system having the speaker positioned under the chin guard.
Tisseront U.S. Pat. No. 5,119,505 discloses a helmet with a built in transceiver system beneath the padding.
Grossman U.S. Pat. No. 4,524,461 discloses a helmet, such as a motorcycle helmet, construction worker helmet or football helmet with a built in transceiver system.
Campbell U.S. Pat. No. 3,916,312 discloses a helmet with a built in transceiver system having a speaker tube and ear funnel.
Palmer U.S. Pat. No. 3,889,190 discloses a helmet with a built in transceiver system having a speaker and earphone mounted on pivotal rods.
The present invention is distinguished over the prior art in general, and these patents in particular by providing a novel communications system for the game of football which allows the quarterback to be heard by his teammates over crowd noise and is approved by football authorities. The communications system comprises a plurality of loudspeakers positioned on opposite sidelines of the playing field in the approach to the goal lines at each end of the field, preferably between the 10 and 20 yard lines. The speakers are aimed or focused at ground level toward the players for selective use whenever the crowd noise is excessive as the team is approaching the goal line or when a team is backed up in or near their own end zone. A receiver and amplifier and appropriate circuits are associated with the speakers. A small microphone, transmitter and switch are carried by the quarterback, preferably on his helmet and the safety padding, i.e., shoulder pads. The quarterback may selectively operate the switch whenever the crowd noise becomes excessive to activate the transmitting and receiving equipment to his call of the plays to be transmitted from the microphone to the speakers which direct the calls along the surface to be heard by his teammates. The system is activated only for a short time, on demand by the quarterback, to allow his call of the plays to be heard by the team and then shuts off automatically. The quarterback's calls emitted by the speakers are heard mainly at the level of the playing field and do not interfere with the fans enjoyment of the
This invention allows for continuous fan enthusiasm for both offense and defense without interfering with players communication in the game. It eliminates delay of game penalties due to crowd noise and the resulting inability to hear commands. It expedites the game. It allows the players to determine the outcome of the game rather than the noisy fans. It generates better performance on offense because the offensive line has to explode off the line of scrimmage simultaneously to achieve positive blocking results. Without the aid of this invention, linemen have had to wait for movement by the defense before executing their block.